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Team:Imperial College London/Project Chemotaxis Future
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Module 1: Phyto-Route
Chemotaxis is the movement of bacteria based on attraction or repulsion of chemicals. Roots secrete a variety of compounds that E. coli are not attracted to naturally. Accordingly, we engineered a chemoreceptor into our chassis that can sense malate, a common root exudate, so that it can swim towards the root. Additionally, E. coli are actively taken up by plant roots, which will allow targeted IAA delivery into roots by our system.
Future Work
1. Repeat the uptake experiment in non-sterile conditions in soil in order to assess if uptake of bacteria is likely to happen in nature. This is especially important as the fine tuning of auxin expression depends on how the compound is administered to the plant.
